Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

I installed 8 on a new drive (but cannot activate - need to install 7 first). Before I installed, I did change the following in bios:

Changed Boot Seqeunce to UEFI
Under advance Boot disabled legacy support
Under secure boot enabled it.

I swapped drives back and hit F12. It did not have an option to boot the windows 7 legacy. I changed everything back and it was fine. My guess is I would need to leave Legacy support enabled.

thanks,

Mike

 

You must have secure boot disabled to boot Windows 7. You should be able to leave it on UEFI though.

Windows 8 will boot without secure boot. I'd recommend leaving it disabled while you are dual-booting.

 

thanks. I got win 8 up and activated with UEFI and Secureboot. Installing the drivers now. Really only the following:

Nvdia Driver for K5000M
Alps Touchpad off Dell Site (ALPS_MULTI-TOUCH-TOUCHPAD_V26GF_A02_SETUP_ZPE.exe)
Dell System Utilities from Dell Site (System-Utilities_Application_M5HX9_WN_2.2.1_A00.exe)
Control Vault from Dell Site (CV_Drv_Setup_8THGX_A10_64bit_ZPE.exe)
Freefall Sensor from Dell site (ST-MICRO_FFS-LNG3DM_A04_PD1NH_SETUP_ZPE.exe)
Audio Driver from Dell Site (IDT_92HD93-HD-AUDIO_PW8D6_A05_SETUP_ZPE.exe)

For nVidia, previously there was a PhysX installed. on the nVidia site, I found the download but it does not say it is Win 8 compatible. Did anyone install that anyway?

I still have to look for the chipset which I think is the Intel rapid start and also the Intel Rapid store I will find at the intel site I guess.



thanks,

Mike

 

Along with the above, I am not sure what chipset driver if any I need. I tried: "Intel Rapid Start Technology" under chipset and it would not install. Also, I read on the forum in post 780 there is a newer "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Management Console and Driver | Intel Rapid Storage" than on the dell site. I tried the link to the 11.7, but it does not work (after clicking a few intel links it cannot find the file). Any ideas?

Dell has version:
10/19/2012
11.6.0.1030, A01

thanks,

Mike

 

1) Yes.
2) Yes, both.
3) No, the speed difference isn't noticeable in day-to-day usage unless you're constantly doing bulk sequential writes. The benefit of the Pro version is that it is slightly faster in synthetic benchmarks but, more importantly, it uses MLC NAND which lasts longer than TLC NAND (non-Pro). Be careful with the "lasts longer" modifier because a normal user won't burn through one of these SSD for a long time. In the end, I prefer using the Samsung 840 (non-pro) in most systems but you can't go wrong with either.

Do yourself a favor and read the reviews over at AnandTech:

AnandTech - Samsung SSD 840 (250GB) Review

AnandTech - Samsung SSD 840 Pro (256GB) Review

I actually just replaced a Samsung 830 256GB with a Samsung 840 500GB in a friend's computer... (the bottom SSD is an Intel 310 80GB mSATA SSD in a 2.5" adapter)

 

Am I right in thinking the dual pointing keyboard option has the little blue track stick in the middle of the keyboard, while the regular backlit one only has the track pad?

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

No, both have TrackPoints and trackpads.

 

Yup and while the Dell trackpoint is no Thinkpad trackpoint, it's still usable.

 

Ok so ill ask again then, what's the difference bw the dual pointing backlit one and the regular backlit one?...

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Hmm, wait, there are two backlit keyboard options?? I was thinking backlit vs non backlit. Heading to the Dell website now.

EDIT: One has the new Windows 8 layout, the other retains the old school layout. I think the only difference between the two is the look of the Win key.